Why I Do Not Treat My Wife With Justice

I would like just to say: because I love her, but I suspect that that will not satisfy. Perhaps it is worth reflecting that treating my wife with justice would be corrosively unnatural, for justice is the least she may claim from me. If justice is giving to one exactly what one deserves and no more (generally, commutative justice), then it is what we offer to those we cannot - or, perhaps, will not - love. In short, this kind of justice is for strangers. In such an intimate and personal sphere as marriage, then, to long for justice is to long inexpressibly for the second rate. Love rightly demands of me more than giving to my wife what she is due: it rightly demands of me that I give all that I have; it demands I make a pure and complete gift to her of my very self.